Chapter Text
Pandora & Evan 2007
Walburga and Orion’s charity auctions were the event of the year for the rich people in London. The Blacks rented out a hall far more extravagant than half the guests had ever been in, the walls lined with golden frames and famous busts, the ceilings decorated with paintings of angels and cupids. But beyond the art of the party, the guests were exposed to the haunting art of the family. They stood at the end of the hall on a raised platform dressed in their finest suits and gowns, staring down at everyone who dared to take the long and daunting walk up to them. It was the same order each time. Walburga and Orion at the centre, Walburga’s brothers Alphard and Cygnus to her left and Cygnus’s wife and his three daughters holding the end in their relative insignificance. Sirius and Regulus were beside their father, backs straight and faces carefully blank. Always the same, always painfully dull until they could escape, but this auction was different. It was dedicated to raising funds for the local zoo, a smokescreen reward for Regulus’s latest exam results to hide their parents' working attempt at driving them apart. Sirius wasn’t talking to him again that night, but he was learning not to care.
Instead he moved towards Narcissa as they broke away from their stiff greeting ritual, smiling internally when Regulus saw she was seeking him out too. She grasped his arm and led him away to one of the tables at the back, pulling him down into a seat with her face marred by candlelight. Narcissa was a few years his senior but his favourite of their family by a wide margin. They shared the same early white streaked hair, the same greyish green eyes instead of blue and the same mind. They understood each other in a way Sirius, Andromeda and Bellatrix couldn’t, and that’s why when Narcissa leant across the table with a knowing smile playing across her lips Regulus wasn’t worried.
“Did you notice anyone new this year?” she asked as playfully as she ever got. She took a wine flute from a passing waiter and swung it around in her hand like a well placed prop.
Regulus thought back to what seemed an endless amount of guests. Though one family stuck out. “The Rosiers. Your mother’s niece and nephew? They never come”
He struggled to find how that was relevant. They located the twins on the dance floor and watched them talk for a while in silence. They looked eerily similar, more so than twins usually do. It was like their faces were crafted to be exactly the same, no feminine touches or masculine lines. Their pale eyes and blonde hair against brown skin elevated them to a beauty known only to the Blacks, complete and unsettling perfection. Regulus was entranced by them.
“She will be your wife” Narcissa whispered and the blood drained from his face. He was only eleven. “And he will be your friend. Their mother has been conspiring with yours and mine. I overheard”
All he could manage was a small noise, still overwhelmed and unable to tear his eyes away from the two who had noticed them now. Narcissa found his hand under the table.
Her voice became even quieter, her red lips at his ear, and there were notes of despair in it. Her playful smile was gone and it was replaced by the look she had when she became engaged to Lucius last summer at just fourteen. Far away and lost. “It’ll be okay, mon etoile” She pulled him up again carefully. “You’ll like my cousins I think. They're like you. Strange humour and a penchant for pets”
Regulus swallowed and allowed himself to be led over, trusting in Narcissa’s pull. She nodded to the twins and their eyes flicked curiously to Regulus.
“Pandora, Evan. It is good to see you well”
They hummed politely though they were far more interested in Regulus.
“This is my cousin, Monsieur Regulus Black. He chose the charity for tonight”
Before Regulus could be forced to find a reply, Pandora offered him her dance card. “If you please, Monsieur Black?”
He looked between the twins but Evan didn’t voice what his hard protective look seemed to say. Narcissa smiled coyly and nudged him again. He bowed deeply and took her outstretched gloved hand. “My pleasure.”
The dance floor wasn’t too busy which meant his family could see him as Regulus’s hands found Pandora’s waist. Her dress was abnormal. It was made of blue tulle at the skirt and puffy sleeves from her shoulders down to her wrists, perfectly reflecting her eyes. She looked like a princess and naturally she drew attention. Regulus could feel his mother’s eyes on his back so he offered Pandora a smile he knew she’d be pleased with.
“It is nice to meet you, Miss Rosier” he said politely and almost blanched at her quirked brow. “What’s wrong?”
“You mean to marry me, Regulus, don’t be so formal. It’s boring.” she sighed, dutifully jumping for him to spin her in the air. “Evan said you look dull but I think that’s your mother’s face you’re wearing.”
Regulus’s jaw tightened and he spun her again, probably faster than he needed to. As he turned he caught eyes with Sirius. He was watching from the corner of the room with Andromeda with narrowed eyes and a hand clenched tightly around a glass. If Regulus didn’t know any better he’d say he was jealous. And if he was any less vindictive he wouldn’t have held Pandora’s hand tighter and beckoned Evan over once the dance was over.
They dashed from the hall and up the flights of stairs. It was the first time Regulus had openly gone against his mother and he was starting to understand why Sirius loved it so much. It was exhilarating. Pushing away from their rules to explore these strange twins who moved with the same rhythm. A rhythm he wanted to move with.
Both boys held Pandora’s skirts so she could keep up and the adrenaline of defying their parents so openly powered them up to the top of the building. Evan bent over the railing breathing heavily and laughing as they gathered their breath. Regulus led Pandora to the edge of the balcony on the highest floor and the three of them sat, swinging their bare feet and watching central London bustle away. From there they could see the Mayor’s office with only two lights on. They could see the Thames. They could see the Tower of London and they could see the fading glitter of the stars that shone bright enough to be seen past London’s gloom.
After a while of loose chatter that moved fluently from French to English and back again Pandora looked up at him and smiled. “You wear your own face now Reg”
Barty 2013
As Barty Crouch Junior sat on his new dorm bed, legs swinging against the frame, he wondered how he’d gotten there.
He’d taken five A levels that summer and gotten A* in each. The few friends he had were surprised he actually went through with it. His mother made him his favourite cake the way his nonna did it. He had even appeared in their local paper as the boy wonder of the year. But Bartemius Crouch Senior had hardly even looked at the certificate. He was too busy and Barty had to understand that being the Mayor was a job that absorbed his time. Being the son of the mayor meant many many things, but the thing Barty dwelled on as he sat in the Oxford dorms was his father’s last words to him before he drove away. Don’t forget who got you here. Was Barty at Oxford because of his talent for medicine, or was he here because of his surname? Was he here because an admissions tutor saw something in him or did he get his education because his father donated what he thought was worth getting Barty off his hands to the dean? It circled round and round his head as he sat surrounded by unpacked boxes and suitcases, his entire life folded up because he couldn’t see himself going back home. The voices got so loud he didn’t even notice the door opening and closing.
When he looked up two people were staring at him. The first knocked the wind out of him. Tall, lean, dark hair, intimidating but striking eyes. Brooding but in a kissable way, not a miserable one. But before he could fully fantasise he saw an equally beautiful girl beside him who could only be his girlfriend. She opposed his dark colours with a warm blue jumper and striking blonde curls and Barty supposed a guy like that needed someone to balance him out with warmth rather than add their own darkness onto him.
“Alright?” he nodded, resting his elbows on his knees to steady himself. These strangers didn’t need to see him on the verge of a panic attack, especially if the hot one was to be his room mate.
They exchanged glances and Barty grew more nervous. He tapped against his knee, waiting for their silent conversation to end. The girl stuck out her hand which was covered in doodles and notes and chipped nail polish.
“I’m Pandora. I just wanted to see who Reggie’s roommate was, I’m staying at another college a few roads down”
Her smile was disarming and whatever resentment he’d felt towards her was becoming short lived. Barty turned to the boy with a smirk. “Reggie?”
He scowled and set his bag down. “Regulus Black”
Barty tried not to be intimidated by that. The Blacks were pretty infamous. The French family were a staple at Oxford. A powerful lineage of intellectuals who came from extraordinary wealth and pretty much dominated any field they decided to integrate into. Politics, business, the arts. If a Black wanted to do it, they were simply the best. But Barty was smart too, maybe not in the traditional sense but he was pretty much unrivalled. Perhaps he’d met his match.
“Barty Crouch” he answered before adding “Junior” to stress he came from power as well. New money wasn’t anything a Black would care for but he wanted Regulus to know anyway.
Pandora rolled her eyes. “Well if we’re going to do full names to make ourselves important, I’m Pandora Rosier”
And of course Regulus would be dating a Rosier. Of course Barty wouldn’t stand a chance. An obviously intelligent, cultured, pretty Frenchwoman has him paling in comparison. But Regulus seemed to want to move on from introductions. He pointed to all of Barty’s bags.
“You’ve packed to stay” he said simply, and Barty would come to know most of his questions were said as statements.
Barty scratched the back of his neck “Uh yeah…”
Regulus nodded and Pandora smiled brilliantly.
“So are we! Best thing about having rich parents, the university doesn’t want to upset them. We’re going to keep you, Barty, I think.”
“Keep me?” Barty asked with a raised eyebrow.
“You’re in our group now” Regulus sighed as if he couldn’t have heard anything worse but Barty had a feeling he didn’t mind all too much. He nodded to the bags. “Do you want help with those?”
They moved together and Pandora stayed to help both of them unpack. Barty unpacked his record player first and set it on his bedside table. It was a parting gift from his mother and he played the only record she’d wrapped it with. The album was the one she would play when his dad wasn’t home, one she’d taken with her when she moved from Florence. They would dance to it around the kitchen as she cooked dinner and she would sing the words to him with a smile she wouldn’t allow herself any other time.
Pandora smiled as she began to pick up the melody of the first song. “ Ooh I like this one” she nodded approvingly and Barty let out a sigh of relief he didn’t even know he needed. She was tapping the song on her thigh. “Reg do you remember when Mademoiselle Dubois had us learning this on the piano?”
Regulus hummed in reply as he opened up a duffel bag and started placing the contents on the bed.
“We played that night until our fingers bled. The next day we had to play with plasters, it was awful. Ah what a good song.” Pandora sighed happily, not noticing Barty’s concerned frown.
“There’s a record shop we passed on the way up here. Maybe we can pick some out before classes start” Regulus mused, not noticing Barty either.
Clothes were put on hangers and books were tucked onto shelves and they spent about an hour trying to figure out how to sort out bed sheets and their covers. The music kept playing and they kept sharing little stories. He found out both of them were doing Zoology like Dorcas was and he told them about how he was studying veterinary sciences because his father wanted him to become a doctor and because he had wanted to do that anyway he moved the degree a little bit just to annoy him. All Barty could think was that he hoped he held on to them. He knew when you start university you’re never closest with your first set of friends but he was a rule breaker at heart. He hoped he kept them and they kept him.
It was night by the time they were finished.
The two boys were staring at the final bare wall sitting cross legged beside each other on the carpet. Neither liked empty white space. Pandora had fallen onto Regulus’s bed a while ago with a magazine in her lap. She had a silk bonnet over her curls and looked just about ready for bed so Barty resigned himself to a year of watching his crush sleep with his girlfriend beside him.
“I think you should put photos and posters up” Pandora suggested, flipping a page.
“Good idea” Barty jumped up and reached for the scrolls and Polaroids on his bedside table. It seemed a given that Pandora was the most artistic of them so he passed his posters of different rock bands to her for her to place them. Regulus only had a few pictures but she took those too and got to work tacking them to the wall.
Regulus leaned into Barty slightly as he sat back down and he felt his breath hitch embarrassingly but Regulus didn’t seem to notice. They just watched as Pandora moved the images around in different arrangements. Barty saw Regulus’s family portraits, a girl with the same strange white in her hair as his and they all sported the same melancholy look. One boy kept popping up and Barty assumed that was his brother. His only real family photo was one with his mother. The corners were worn from how many times he’d held it.
Pandora held one up teasingly. “This your girlfriend? ”
Regulus moved away from him sharply and squinted at the picture. “She’s pretty” he said drily, making sure there was distance between them.
Barty snorted. “She’d skin you if she heard that. No, that’s my sister Dorcas.”
That seemed to settle Regulus but he didn’t move back. Pandora tacked the one of him and Dorcas at her house on one of the many nights he’d escape there and stepped back to appreciate her handiwork.
“There’s something missing” Pandora grabbed her camera and set it on the floor against the wall. She put the timer on and threw herself right in the middle of the two boys, landing half in Regulus’s lap and half in Barty’s. She wrapped her arms around their shoulders and smiled toothily, gesturing for them to do the same. The light blinded Barty and as soon as it was done Pandora scrambled up again to shake the film.
“If we’re going to be Oxford’s sexiest trio we need to document this” she explained. “We need to have the three of us on the wall”
She snatched a pen and wrote their names and the date on the strip along the bottom of the photo. Regulus looked glum in his usual way and Barty was squinting but Pandora’s brightness seemed to make that seem okay. It was a perfect representation.
“Evan will be jealous he’s been replaced” Regulus commented absently.
“Evan?”
“Pandora’s twin brother. My cousin” Regulus explained. “He’s a traitor, he goes to Cambridge”
Barty felt himself grin madly. “So the rumours are true then? You Blacks really do love incest”
Pandora burst out in laughter and Regulus swatted at him. “What?”
“Well you two are cousins and you’re together. Sounds a lot like incest to me”
Regulus’s cheeks went an extraordinary red and Pandora could hardly control herself.
“We’re engaged actually” she said through gasps.
“Dora shut up” Regulus hissed.
“Set to be married straight after school!”
He pushed her lightly and she fell back onto the bed in dying out giggles.
“I’m a little confused” Barty scratched the back of his neck with a small chuckle.
Regulus’s eyes lingered on him as he considered his words and Barty couldn’t understand what that meant. “Our parents have arranged our marriage. I love Dora, but I’m very, very gay. Not the right foot to start on is it?”
Pandora burst into another fit of giggles and Barty just had to join her out of his own elation.
The photo was tacked onto the wall later that night amongst ones of Evan and Dorcas and Sirius. Predestination was what Pandora always said about that. They were meant to meet, meant to be a family to each other and bring other lost souls into their wayward mix. But before all of that, Barty, Regulus and Pandora spent their first night away from home happy and smiling for more reasons than just being free.
Dorcas 2013
When Evan moved to Cambridge it was the first time he was away from his sister. The pain and worry was lessened by the fact that Regulus was with her and was probably more vengeful than Evan himself, but still. He hated being apart from her.
On the first day of classes he walked down to the lecture with Xeno, a guy from a few dorms down. He seemed to be a bit eccentric but beggars couldn’t be choosers during the first few weeks of school in terms of friends and Xeno was happy to carry their conversations alone. Evan strode into the lecture hall and the only other black face in a sea of white was a girl sat toward the back. Her braids were up in a neat bun, her full lips were glossed and she looked down at him with a faint interest, clearly unsure whether he was competition or not. It was intimidating, the way she jutted her jaw with self confidence. But he’d rather sit with her than anyone else. Evan left Xeno and took one of the many seats around her. He stretched out his hand.
“Evan Rosier” he said blasély, relishing at the way her brow quirked at his French pronunciation of his surname.
She shook the hand firmly and her cold rings bit into his skin. “Dorcas Meadowes”
The lecturer started talking so they got their things out but every time they were back in the halls they were always beside each other . Evan learnt Dorcas had a passion for big cats and helping them out of extinction. Dorcas learnt Evan was fascinated by primates and the similarities between them and us. Soon lecture friends turned to study mates turned to best friends after long nights in the library. Dorcas wormed close to his heart in a way Regulus and Pandora couldn't, the two of them bonded by their Cambridge experience.
One night, towards the end of the spring term, Evan slipped into Dorcas’s dorm room to hear her on the phone. She was laying on her bed with the phone pressed to her ear staring up at the glow in the dark stars she stuck on the ceiling.
“Really, Junior?” she sighed fondly, a soft smile on her face. It was rare, a smile like that. She didn’t nurse one when her father called or her elder sisters. No, that smile was reserved for her brother.
Evan had heard a lot about Barty Crouch Jr. He didn’t know what he looked like (Dorcas’s roommate wouldn’t let her hang anything on the walls and he had resisted searching for him online) but he knew Dorcas had known him since their fathers decided to work together when they were six and he spent more time at the Meadowes’ house than his own, so much so that they called themselves sister and brother easily. Evan knew Pandora thought he was brilliant and Regulus had a small crush and he also knew that crush was reciprocated from Dorcas. He just didn’t know how he felt about him. He was important to all of Evan’s important people and Evan didn’t even know him. How was he meant to trust him to be good to them?
He set his bag down and waved to Dorcas, getting ready to slink off to the bathroom so she could finish her call in peace. They were meant to be studying together because Dorcas’s college was closer to the main library but Evan had run a little late so he couldn’t blame her for answering the phone. He was surprised to see her jump up.
“Wait, wait, he’s here… tell him yourself… because it’s your idea, don’t be such a pussy”
She put the phone on speaker, holding it out impatiently.
Barty cleared his throat on the other side of the line. “Alright, Rosier?”
Evan was surprised to hear him pronounce it right, even if it sounded strange in his indecipherable accent. He liked it though. He didn’t know why but he liked it. He tried to maintain his usual monotone and hoped his pleased feeling didn’t translate over the phone or to Dorcas. “Yeah. You wanted to ask something?”
There was a slight pause and Dorcas kissed her teeth. “Hurry it up Crouch”
“Christ. Look, me, Reg and Dora are staying over the break and while I was asking Cassie if she wanted to stay with us Dora was asking after you. Apparently you two are attached at the hip or something”
Evan noticed he said the last part with the same distaste he felt when he heard Barty call his friends nicknames or that Pandora was in his dorm room waiting for his answer. Dorcas must’ve heard it too.
“Don’t worry, Junior, you’re still my favourite” she rolled her eyes exaggeratedly. “Evan has nothing on your beer pong skills”
Barty laughed and Evan leant closer to the phone to make sure he heard it all. It was sharp and arrogant but he needed it to wash over him.
“Well we can’t all start practising at thirteen. Look, are you coming or what? I need to know whether I need to prepare myself for three weeks of your shit Meadowes. I can imagine with Rosier coming these two will be distracted and I’ll have you in my face the whole time”
Evan looked to Dorcas apprehensively but she was grinning. She wasn’t offended at all. “Who said I’m coming?” he asked.
Barty’s voice became low like he was hiding his words from Regulus and Pandora. “I do. I know a lot about you, Rosier.”
The line clicked off and Dorcas shrieked with laughter, doubling over at Evan’s confused frown. “He’s such a prick! God, we’re going to have so much fun, Ev, I promise. You’ll love him”
When Dorcas ran off three weeks later and left Evan with both of their bags to greet them, Evan didn’t love Barty. He’d never seen Dorcas so uncomposed. One of the first things they bonded over was how they felt they had to be unfeeling and blank. She threw herself into a man who caught her and spun her around as Pandora and Regulus watched bemused. They both laughed so happily that the three of them realised whatever friendship they’d experienced with them didn’t go nearly as deep as this. Dorcas didn’t have to be unfeeling with Barty, she could just be.
As Evan lugged the bags over from the train carriage, Regulus jogged towards him to help and Pandora kissed his cheek.
“We don’t get that welcome?” Pandora asked teasingly, nodding over to the two of them. They’d turned so Barty’s back was to them and Evan didn’t miss the way Regulus lingered on him before they moved to join them in the chaos of leaving the station.
He scoffed. “No”
They were caught in a whirl of people pushing them towards the exit so all conversations were lost but when they got out onto the sunny pavement of Oxford and finally got the opportunity to look at each other Evan felt like the breath was knocked from him.
Barty’s arm was wrapped around Dorcas protectively in a way that revealed small tattoos dotted across his tanned skin. He watched Evan with a faint interest and when he spoke his voice carried a faint Italian lilt that had been lost over the phone. Introductions were swapped between them, the most interesting one being Dorcas calling Regulus her brother’s “boy toy” which he didn’t appreciate at all.
Dorcas had never believed in strong friendships. Where she and Barty grew up before they moved to London, there weren’t many girls who would want to be friends with the dark skinned girl with the strange hair. Besides the sometimes frightful codependency she had with Barty, Dorcas grew up entirely lonely. But as she walked through the streets of Oxford listening to Barty and Regulus squabble in Italian (because of course a Black is uselessly multilingual) and Evan and Pandora catch up on what they missed Dorcas had a feeling that might change. She had a feeling she found a family in these people and it settled her.
Emmeline 2016
Emmeline sat at the bar with her Shirley Temple biting her lip to keep from crying.
She was in a jazz club in the middle of Paris so music wafted from the stage but also from outside as the bouncer swung the doors open and shut. It had been extremely busy at one point, full of sweaty dancers and mooning couples, but as the clock ticked closer to the witching hour most people began to move on. All except the group that occupied a booth in the corner. Emmeline had watched them all night. She’d seen them come in, all of them interlocked one way or another with a hand or a shoulder. It formed some semblance of closeness which was a metaphor she would have ruminated over if she wasn’t too busy being disgusted by them. The way they leaned on each other and smiled and laughed left a message that their group was impenetrable, untouchable, by all accords. It made Emmeline unexplainably jealous and so instead of approaching the sexy, intimidating group she so badly wanted to fit into she watched them from the bar. Her boyfriend Pierre had been busy that night when she’d phoned to ask. More often than not he was busy now that he’d finished school and she was still in her final year. He was an artist, a poet, made of ink stains and cigarette smoke. Emmeline knew Paris swallowed up people like that and she knew he was drifting.
That didn’t mean it didn’t hurt when the group that had walked in earlier moved to the dance floor and she saw one of them kissing him. Pierre, who was busy and expecting her to be at home, was dancing dangerously close to one of the men. His hand was in his hair and he was kissing him in a way he had never kissed Emmeline before. Like he savoured it. It took watching that to realise he didn’t savour Emmeline. Resigned, she ordered another drink. She didn’t know what she was doing. Why she was at a club known for promiscuity and drinking when she couldn’t even afford to eat while she got her useless degree that forced no job prospects when she finished school. Zoology. Emmeline studied hyenas all day for her dissertation knowing that was what was waiting for her when she left school. Hyenas to pick apart her already forsaken life.
Now watching those five laugh in the corner she scowled. Rich kids here for the summer enjoying the smog of Paris before they headed back to England. Putting their expenses on credit cards, flirting with everyone around them because they could. Sneering at those they didn’t care for because they were born with the money that meant they were simply better. And while Emmeline struggled to keep the lease for her flat and food in her fridge, they would swan around without a real care or dilemma. One of them caught her eye. A woman with long braids and high cheekbones. They all had high cheekbones as Emmeline walked closer after the woman had beckoned her. Even their bone structure meant to cut and draw blood. The woman moved up so there was space for Emmeline to sit and when she did she felt like she was on trial the way they surveyed her.
The other woman sat forward on her elbows. She smiled but it was cat-like, not friendly but feline. “Bonjour. Je m’appelle Pandora Rosier”
Emmeline blanched. A Rosier? Here? And by the looks of it, her brother. She’d been moaning about rich kids in her head but to this level she never would have thought. The Rosiers were known throughout France for their connections to the old monarchy and their extraordinary beauty. The Black family would be their only real rival, but Emmeline couldn’t imagine a Black would be somewhere like this. This bar was for university students drowning their sorrows like she was.
“Et tu?”
“Emmeline Vance. It’s okay I can speak English if that’s-”
The brother turned to the one that had kissed her boyfriend, interrupting her. “Vance. Do we know a Vance?”
He frowned. “I’m not sure we do”
“It’s just that that’s awfully familiar”
The one that brought her over shook her head. “No, she wasn’t named Vance. She was Emille Vasseur. God, Evan, listen to people when they talk, it's rude.” She paused. “And what’s also rude is not introducing ourselves.”
“I did” Pandora objected but that went ignored.
“I’m Dorcas Meadowes. He’s Barty Crouch. Over there’s Evan and that miserable looking bastard is Regulus Black”
Emmeline dragged her hands across her face. “Of fucking course he is”
Barty burst out laughing as Regulus sat forward dangerously. Emmeline would be scared if she wasn’t so tired.
“Of course the guy my boyfriend kisses is a Black.”
Regulus frowned in confusion and Emmeline’s shock made it across her face.
“My boyfriend. Pierre? On the dance floor? God, you don’t even remember do you?”
They were all laughing now, but not at her expense like she’d expected. At Regulus’s. His cheeks went pink and he cleared his throat. “I uh. I didn’t catch his name”
Emmeline took a sip of her drink and hoped her hands would stay steady . “It seems his name isn’t worth remembering anyway”
“I like you” Barty said, pointing at her, and Emmeline felt strangely validated like that compliment wasn’t given often. “What do you do with yourself?”
She felt unsure then, not witty at all. Her father was an immigrant to France from South Korea. Her mother wasn’t from the ancient French nobility. Emmeline thought she’d sound as foolish as her parents thought her and she couldn’t handle these people laughing at her. So she deflected, throwing her sarcasm up as a shield she didn’t know was in all of her new friends’ arsenal.
“Not snort coke in my mansion so I’m not sure we have much in common” Emmeline drawled and she drew another laugh from Barty. He leaned forward on his elbows so far she could smell the vodka on his breath. She noticed how the rest of his friends stiffened. How Evan crawled into himself and Dorcas looked resigned, how Regulus seemed to want to throttle him and Pandora clasped her brother's hand beneath the table.
“Darling, that’s only during the summer”
Dorcas slapped his head and knocked the flirtation out of his eyes. “Fuck off, you liar. We’re all in a Zoology programme besides him, it takes up all our time. He wants to be a vet and his mum would skin him if he touched the stuff”
And if that didn’t just light Emmeline up. “What do you study?” She asked eagerly. “I’m doing my dissertation on social structures in hyena packs, they’re my specialty”
Pandora looked impressed. Emmeline stayed at their table well into the morning. They spoke about their craft. About their schools, about their dreams, about what they want to do to help coax their animals back from extinction. For Barty’s sake they tried to keep the conversation medicinal so he could join in but he seemed quite content to drape himself across a pained looking Evan in his drunken state. When Emmeline left them she left with Dorcas’s phone number and the promise of seeing them again. They kept in contact after the summer ended. She was added to their video calls once term started and she liked all their social media posts. Regulus even flew her to England for Christmas when he heard she would spend the holidays alone. He was an apathetic boy, the one Emmeline was most weary of, but he got her there and she felt whole again for the first time in a while. The group was special and if Emmeline got to have a small taste she would accept it and ignore her stomach turning in on itself in hunger.
Emma 2017
Regulus hadn’t seen his brother in five years. They called sometimes so he knew the grooves of his voice and they followed each other online so he knew how his style had changed and all his accomplishments. But Regulus hadn’t seen him. It was nerve wracking. He walked down through Camden with Dorcas. They had stopped in a coffee shop so he had a cup to hold to stop his fidgeting and something to burn his tongue to take his mind off of things. The barista had spelt his name Riglis in big letters on the side so he tried to hold it in a way that covered that. Why his family had to be strange he didn’t know but it deeply inconvenienced him.
“I know we hate your brother” Dorcas said after a while of silence. “But this is pretty cool”
Regulus had gotten an email from Sirius a few weeks ago about a job opportunity. He said he was taking over the zoo from their parents and wanted to turn parts of it into a research centre for the animals about captivity and how to save some of the endangered ones. All the workers would stay but Sirius wanted a person to lead them, like a manager of each department of the zoo and he offered Regulus the reptiles and the chance to recommend people. It shocked him, firstly because he didn’t know his brother knew how to email and secondly because out of all of his parents projects why would he pick the zoo to steal?
Dorcas was offered the tigers, panthers and lions after the interview Regulus had set up and the first thing she’d done was call her father when Sirius gave her the news. She put it on speaker phone on Sirius’s desk and he watched her, bemused. When Mr Meadowes picked up she told him about the job she’d just landed, headed by a Black, and how he could stick the politics job he kept trying to push on to her. Sirius grinned at her proudly and shook her hand, telling her he was looking for people exactly like her on his team and boy did she have a wealth of options. That’s how Pandora ended up waiting for them at the zoo with a new keycard saying she was in charge of all the birds they had, though specifically an expert in vultures. She hugged them both and pulled them into the staff room where Evan and Barty waited with Xeno. They were squabbling about whether chimpanzees could be operated on laparoscopically and paid them no attention as they came in. Xeno was being ignored too, his head stuck in a magazine about giraffes.
“When’s Emmeline getting in?” Regulus asked, throwing his cup away and brewing a new cup of tea while Pandora and Dorcas sat down.
“Her flight landed last night so soon, I should think.” Pandora answered. She checked her watch. “Luna didn’t let us sleep at all last night so I’ll sympathise with her jet lag”
They all perked up at the mention of their favourite niece. She was doted on, that girl , like she was a miracle. Regulus had never been a massive fan of babies. He was loved of Draco as an extension of Narcissa and they’d been born around a similar time so maybe he had just matured but Luna was special. She was all of theirs.
“Teething?” Dorcas asked. “My sister’s daughter’s teething. All she’d do was cry over Christmas it was fucking annoying. I think me and Junior sped up our date with death the amount of fag breaks we took”
Pandora pushed away the topic of Luna’s late nights with ease to focus on her friend and Regulus settled down to hear it too. “How was it, going back up to your dad’s?”
Dorcas shrugged. “As per usual” The group had dreaded sending Barty and Dorcas off back home. Ever since her mother had died, her father became all the more condescending and brutal in his criticism. Where Dorcas’s house was a sanctuary for Barty as a child it had now become their obligation to return to and in an interesting turn of events she far preferred the time they spent with Barty’s mother over the holidays. “Still hates my job and by extension me. Junior over there was the prodigal son”
Before Regulus could make a quip about the irony in that, Sirius came through the door with Emmeline and another woman. She was pretty in a modest sort of way, round eyes and a stylish bob. Regulus’s eyes quickly flitted over her and focused on Sirius as he addressed the room. When Sirius had left home a year before Regulus was set to leave for university, he was his brother. This man that stood in front of him was an amalgamation of that brother and the strange one that existed inside his phone. He had piercings, his hair was longer, he wore clothes his mother would burn. Regulus supposed he himself had probably changed a little bit but he was not transformed like Sirius was. He found him deeply unnerving, like a stranger wearing his brother's face was before him. Although he’d worked through the feelings of betrayal and anguish at being left behind and relatively forgotten, he still felt uncomfortable with his resentment and Sirius felt the full force of it when they locked eyes.
“I know you all know each other quite well” Sirius nodded slightly awkwardly. “But Benjy over there I hired myself” A small man with wonky glasses waved self consciously and turned his eyes back to his cup he was nursing. “ And this is Emma.”
After the introductions Sirius excused himself to find his brother but Regulus dodged him. He pushed Pandora into his path and made his way to the door, trusting her to rattle off facts about her latest interests to keep Sirius occupied. He wasn’t ready for that conversation yet, the face to face one. Even the thought of it made his throat constrict. Instead, he made his way to where he knew the reptiles were kept after his many visits with his mother when she was on business. He could start his work that way. Bury his hurt in forked tongues and scales. What he didn’t know was that he had a tail.
“Mr Black?” a woman called hurrying after him.
He kept walking, upping his pace but she kept calling after him just the same. Once it started to grate on him he turned on his heel and she almost walked into him.
“What?” Regulus snapped, glaring down at Emma.
She stuck out her hand stiffly, meeting his eyes with a grim determination. “Dr Vanity”
Regulus just looked at the outstretched hand with impatience and when she pulled it away her expression became severe.
“I don’t know if that’s what you’re used to but I won’t allow you to be rude to me, Mr Black.” Emma told him and she fell into step with him. He blinked down at her, almost at a loss. No, he wasn’t used to people calling him on his shit and he almost respected the small women for it. Emma didn’t wait for an apology, she simply followed Regulus and continued with what she had wanted to say. “I’m working with the petting zoo. I wanted to introduce myself because I think I can offer a lot to your research”
Regulus raised an eyebrow but didn’t speak, leaving room for her to continue. They’d reached the reptile zone and he used his keycard to let them into the back rooms.
“Well I moved here from Munich because I believe in what you’re saying. Riddle needs to be stopped. He can’t keep hurting our ecosystems, we won’t survive it”
She sounded so passionate the edges of her words were falling away and softening. Regulus pulled a chair out for her and they sat in what was to become his office. He watched as her hands moved to punctuate her points and her brow furrowed and he felt guilty for acting so frostily. She was someone he needed as a team member and maybe even a friend. At least, she was more capable than Benjy seemed to be .
“I’ll offer my help any way I can. I used to work for Riddle so I know a lot about his staff, his policies. Anything. I want to see him destroyed, Black.”